(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an assistant server and a path connection control method for a telecommunication company's network or a service provider's network. More particularly, the invention relates to an assistant server and a path connection control method for receiving a communication service request from a user terminal and connecting the user terminal to a communication path which matches the request in a communication network constructed by a plurality of communication service networks.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with the rapid spread of the Internet and the emergence of various network applications of E-mail and the like, a network user has come to be able to perform various works such as a settlement work on the communication network. As the number of network users increases, the communication services on the networks required by the users are becoming various.
For example, there is a demand of a service of transferring a large amount of information such as, not only voice data transferred over a conventional telephone network, but also file data, video data, and data of HDTV (High Definition Television) which is called a television of the next generation. In order to transfer the information over a network, in the case of voice data, a bandwidth (line capacity) of 32 kbps (bits per second) is necessary as an average. In the case of a file transfer, a bandwidth of 1 Mbps is necessary. In the case of video data transfer, a bandwidth of 2 to 10 Mbps is necessary. In the case of HDTV data transfer, a bandwidth of 20 to 100 Mbps is necessary.
In the case of file transfer, at the time of a request of transferring a file issued from the user to a file server and at the time of transferring file data from a file server to a user terminal, data is transferred in a burst manner. After a file transfer is finished, until the next request is issued, the communication is stopped. Consequently, it is desired to effectively use the communication line resources (bandwidth). When it is desired to assure the reliability of communication, double communication lines or a function of bypassing a failed line is requested so that communication is not stopped immediately even if a failure occurs in a part of a network.
Conventionally, when a user desires to change the conditions of communication service assured on a network, the user makes a new contract with a telecommunication company or a communication service provider having a network, thereby reconstructing the communication path for the user.
In the conventional technique, therefore, it takes time to make a new contract with a telecommunication company or a communication service provider, so that various communication services requested by the user cannot be immediately provided. According to the conventional techniques, communication services which are becoming various more and more in future require a significant capital investment, so that it is uneconomical to telecommunication companies.